Albert Marten "Al" Wolters (born 1942) is an emeritus professor of religion at

Redeemer University College Redeemer University is a private Christian liberal arts and science university located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in the community of Ancaster. Founded in 1982, Redeemer stands in the Reformed Tradition and offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelo ...

Ancaster, Ontario Ancaster is a historic town in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. Founded as a town in 1793, it immediately developed itself into one of the first important and influential early Kingdom of Great Britain, Bri ...

(near

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

). He has been described as a "towering figure" in the

Kuyperian Abraham Kuyper (; ; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upo ...

neo-Calvinist Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is a theological movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper. James Bratt has identified a number of different types of Dutch Calvinism: The Seceders, split into ...

pantheon.

Early life and education

Born in the Netherlands on March 30, 1942, Wolters studied at Calvin College ( BA, 1964), the Free University of Amsterdam ( PhD, 1972), and

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

( MA, 1987).

Publications

Wolters' best-known book is ''Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview'', originally published in 1985 with a second edition in 2005. It has been translated into Spanish and other languages. Following in the tradition of Reformed writers such as

Abraham Kuyper Abraham Kuyper (; ; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upo ...

, Herman Bavinck,

Herman Dooyeweerd Herman Dooyeweerd (7 October 1894, Amsterdam – 12 February 1977, Amsterdam) was a professor of law and jurisprudence at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam from 1926 to 1965. He was also a philosopher and principal founder of Reformational phil ...

, and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, Wolters outlines a

worldview A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...

based around the categories of

creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

, and redemption. Wolters has made a particular study of the Copper Scroll, one of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

. He has published multiple papers on the subject as well as a pamphlet ''The Copper Scroll: Overview, Text and Translation'' as a supplement to the ''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament''. Wolters has published several articles on the book of Zechariah, and a major commentary which focuses on the way the book of Zechariah has been interpreted through history.Wolters, A., ''Zechariah'' (Historical Commentary on the Old Testament; Leuven: Peeters, 2014). Reviewed by Anthony R. Petterson, in ''Review of Biblical Literature'' 09 (2016).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolters, Al 1942 births Living people Calvin University alumni Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni McMaster University alumni Canadian Calvinist and Reformed theologians 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Dutch emigrants to Canada